Hair drying apparatus



Se t. 4, 1962 M. F. HARRIS HAIR DRYING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 5, 1959 INVENTOR. Mme F Mann/.5

74:71 A TTORNE 5.

t nn s Patented Sept. 4, 1962 3,052,038 HAR DRYING APPARATUS Mechell F. Harris, 5415 Central, Kansas City, Mo. Filed Aug. 5, 1959, Ser. No. 831,890 4 Claims. (Cl. 34-80) This invention relates generally to means for desiccating air currents and more particularly, to such means especially adapted for use in connection with hair drying apparatus.

In conventional apparatus such as used for the drying of hair in beauty salons or the like, means are provided for heating the air as the latter is circulated or recirculated along a path impinging the heated currents upon the subjects hair to dry the latter. In order to obtain drying action in a conventional hair drier, the air circulated over the hair is normally heated to a temperature of around 120 F. Such heated air currents cause the subject whose hair isbeing dried consider-able discomfort, particularly in view of the relatively long period of time required for drying the hair after shampooing or the like by conventional means.

It has now been discovered that merely heating the air used for drying purposes, although hastening the drying process somewhat, does not reach the essence of the matter and is of only secondary assistance in hastening the drying process. The reason for this is that the air circulated with conventional means, even though heated, may, and normally dom, contain, particularly after recirculation over the wet hair, a high percentage of moisture. Such moist air used for drying purposes in conventional hair drying apparatus is obviously slow and ineflicient in its drying action.

It has been found that the secret of quick and effective drying of wet hair or the like is not merely in the heating of such air but instead is primarily in the continuous drying of the air itself. With dehumidification of the air being used in moving currents to dry the hair, the overall time of hair drying is cut to a fraction of that required with conventional apparatus and no heating at all is required, although some heating to approximately normal ambient room temperatures may be used, if desired, for the comfort of the subject and to protect the latter from the possibility of catching a cold.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide improved means for the drying of hair or the like which incorporates therein means for recirculating the air used for drying purposes and means for continuously removing moisture from such air during recirculation thereof.

It is another important object of this invention to provide hair drying apparatus utilizing desiccant means disposed in the path of recirculation of the air for continuously removing moisture from the latter.

It is another important object of the invention to provide a desiccant assembly having incorporated therein electric heater means running through the desiccant material itself, which may be used upon application of electric current to such heater means for reactivating the desiccant after the same has absorbed its limit of moisture.

Another important object of the invention is to provide hair drying means in which the moving currents of air used to dry the hair are circulated and directed in improved fashion further hastening the drying process.

Still other important objects of the invention, including certain significant details of construction will be made clear or become apparent from the disclosure of the invention as follows.

In the accompanying drawing: 1 FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a hair drier unit made in accordance with the invention in its nor- FIG. 4 is a fragmentary, enlarged cross-sectional viewtaken on line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

Referring to the drawings, the hair drier to be described as a preferred construction for illustrating the invention is generally designated by the numeral 10. Drier 10 includes a head-receiving unit 12, and suitable supporting means for the unit 12 generally designated by the numeral 14 and which may be of any conventional character for interconnecting the unit 12 to a chair, wall, pedestal or the like, not shown.

The unit 12 is provided with a dome-like outer hood generally designated 16 having a side wall 18 which converges at its normally upper extremity in a top 20. The side wall 18 is inwardly flanged at its lowermost extremity as at 22 to define an opening 24 for receiving the head of a subject Whose hair is to be dried.

Mounted within the outer hood 16 is a tubular inner hood 28 having a band-like side wall 3t spaced inwardly from the side wall 18 of outer hood 16 about the entire circumference thereof. Side wall 30 is inwardly flanged as at 32 to define the opening 34 for receiving the upper-v most portion of the head of the subject whose hair is to be dried. The upper portion of side Wall 30 is provided with a cylindrical flange 36 for purpose hereinafter to be described.

Mounted within the hollow interior of the unit 12 adjacent the top thereof is an electric motor 38 supported on the side wall 18 by members 411 secured to the body of motor 38 as at 4 2. The motor 33 is provided with a drive shaft 44- upon which is mounted an air moving fan 46, which may be of various types, but is shown for simplicity of illustration since the exact form thereof is not critical to the invention, as of bladed fan construction. It is significant, however, that the motor 38, when energized, rotates the shaft 44 in a direction such that the fan 46 will move currents of air upwardly through the inner hood 2.8, it being noted that the fan 46 is juxtaposed rel-ative to the flange 36 of inner hood 2.8 for creating a suction immediately above the latter to produce this effect.

Mounted within the outer hood 16 upon the side Wall 18 thereof is an annular heater assembly 48 having a centralopening 50 to clear the body of motor 38. It will be understood that heater 48 may be omitted if desired, but is included in the preferred form of the invention to heat the currents of air being moved to a temperature which will be optimum from the standpoint of comfort of the subjects whose hair is being dried. Such heater assembly 48 may be constructed similarly to flat heating elements used in stoves or the like and may include a backing plate 52 of ceramic or the like which carry a spirally disposed electric heating element 54. Where the heater element 48 is to be omitted, it has been found desirable to employ, in lieu thereof, structure giving a similar partition or bafile effect for directing currents of air as hereinafter explained.

Disposed between the inner hood 28 and the outer hood 16 is a dehumidifying unit generally designated 56. Dehumidifying unit 56 extends around the entire circumference of inner hood 28 and is thereby interposed in the pathway for air currents between the inner hood 28 and the outer hood 16. The dehumidifying unit 56, which may be secured between the outer hood 16 and the inner hood 28 in any suitable manner, preferably includes a foraminous top wall 58, a foraminous bottom wall 60, a quantity of desiccant material 62 therewithin between the foraminous top 58 and the foraminous bottom 60 and reactivating heater means generally designated 64 (see FIG. 4). The top and bottom walls 58 and 68 may be of screen material. The desiccant material 62 preferably comprises an inert, highly hydroscopic substance, such as silica gel crystals. It may be noted that even though the assembly 56 is filled with crystals of silica gel or the like, there will be sulficient interstices between the crystals to permit flow of air currents through the unit 56 at the desired rate, but that such air currents will pass around the dessicant crystals in such proximity to the latter as to etfect a high degree of efficiency in the removal of moisture from the air being circulated through the unit 56.

The reactivating heater means 64 for the unit 56 includes a number of spaced vertical plates 66 of preferably heat resistant and electrically nonconductive material, such as ceramic. Each of the plates 66 is provided therein with a plurality of slots 68 and 70 running from one edge 72 of the plate toward the opposite edge of the latter, with the slots 68 preferably being longer than the slots 70. Such plates 66 are spaced at any suitable intervals about the circumference of the annular dehumidifying unit 56. Supported by plates 66 is a spirally wound tube of electrically nonconductive material such as Fiberglas, such t-ube including an outer row of turns as at 74 and an inner row of turns as at 76, the outer turns 74 being supported at the inner ends of slots 70 while the inner turns 76 are supported at the inner ends of slots 68.

Threaded through the tube 74-7 6 is an electrical resistance heating wire 78 of Nichrome or the like. As previously mentioned, the remaining space within the dehumidifying unit 56 is filled by crystals of silica gel or other suitable desiccant substance.

A filter unit 80 is preferably provided adjacent the lower portion of cylindrical flange 36 of inner hood 28 and may include a foraminous top wall 82, a foraminous bottom wall 84 and a filtering filler 86 of Fiberglas or the like. Such filter is removably received by flange 36 to permit replacement.

If desired, to further increase the dehumidifying elfe'cts upon the air being circulated within the unit 12, there may be provided at the upper extremity of flange 36 of inner hood 28 an auxiliary dehumidifying unit 88 having a foraminous top wall 90, a foraminous bottom wall 92, a filling of desiccant crystals 94 and a spirally disposed electric resistance heater 96 embedded within the crystals 94 and electrically insulated therefrom by a covering or tube such as provided at 74 in the unit 56.

It will be understood that electrical wiring means, which may be'per se conventional in character, will be provided for energizing the motor 38, the heater elements 78 and the heater element 96. Since the nature of such wiring will be apparent to those skilled in the art and of itself does not constitute a novel element of the invention, same is represented merely by means of a control switch 98 which may be located on the exterior of the unit 12i for use by an operator in controlling the energization of the motor 38 and the operation of heater element 78 and heater element 96. Automatic control of the desiccant reactivating cycle perferably is accomplished by disposing within the unit 12 as at 116 an electrical switching assembly which is responsive to the amount of moisture .in the air within the unit 12. Such electrical switching units 116 are manufactured, for example, by General Controls Company of Glendale, California and are identified by the name humidistat. Such a humidistat switching unit may obviously be coupled in manner known to those skilled in the art for energizing the heater elements 78 and 96 to accomplish the reactivation of the desiccant crystals 62 and 94 automatically when the switch 98 is in position deenergizing motor 38. It may also be convenient to provide one or more indicator lights as at 10 to tell the operator at a glance the condition in which the apparatus is operating, for example, whether a reactivation cycle has been completed or is still in progress.

4 Therefore, the switch 98 and associated wiring may be so arranged that in one condition of the switch 98, the fan 38 and optional comfort heating element 54 will alone be energized, while in a second condition of the switch 98, the heating elements 78 and 96 may be energized under the control of the humidistat 116.

It will now be apparent that during normal operation of the apparatus 10 to dry the hair of a subject, the desiccant reactivating heaters 78 and 96 will be deenergized. As the fan 46 is rotated air will be drawn upwardly through the inner hood 28, through the filter and the moisture removing unit 88, impelled against the backing plate or partition 52 and thence directed downwardly along the outside of the inner hood 28 toward the dehumidifying unit 56. Such air will then pass through the spaces between the crystals 62 of desiccant within the unit 56, will emerge downwardly from the foraminous wall 60 and will be impinged upon the lower portion of the hair of the subject being treated. Since the head of such subject will be substantially closing the opening 24, and since upward suction within the inner hood 28 will exist by virtue of the action of the fan 46, such air currents will then travel upwardly through and around the upper portion of the hair within the hood 28 for recirculation through the filter 80, the dehumidifying unit 88 and the path just traced. During such recirculation through the dehumidifying units 88 and 56, the moisture taken up by the air currents in passing over the hair will be continually removed and retained in the dehumidifying units 56 and 88. By virtue of such action, and the use of dry air for carrying out the hair drying process, the effectiveness of such process is greatly increased and the time required is so substantially decreased as to eliminate the usual discomfort and inconvenience to the person being treated and who must, with conventional drying apparatus, remain in the same position for long periods of time. Also, since heating unit 48 can be operated to provide a much lower temperature than required in conventional driers, the subjects comfort is further substantially improved.

It has been found that the desiccant at 62 and 94 will not become saturated during the drying cycle for any single individual, and that between such drying cycles the desiccant at 62 and 94 may be quickly reactivated and the moisture there-from driven off by furnishing electrical current to the heating elements 78 and 96. As soon as the reactivation thus mentioned has been completed, the apparatus 10 is ready for another hair drying cycle. In practice, it has been found that several persons hair may actually be dried between each reactivation of the desiccant material.

It has been found desirable to provide a number of small openings in the outer hood 16 as at 102, which openings 102 may be formed by inwardly bending a number of spaced, stamp-cut tabs 104 in the side wall 18. Such openings function during reactivation of the desiccant material to permit the escape of moisture driven from the latter to the outside atmosphere. It may also be noted that ventilation openings for the motor 38 may be provided in the top of outer hood 16 as at 106.

The overall action of the drier unit 10 and the speed with which it may accomplish the drying result may be further improved by the provision of a number of nozzles generally designated '188 formed and located as hereinafter described for the purpose of creating turbulence and agitation of air within the inner hood 28 and for assuring that air currents are directed across certain portions of the head at which hair is most diflicult to dry with previous types of air drying apparatus. Each nozzle as sembly 108 includes an upwardly directed intake spout 110 disposed below the dehumidifying unit 56 between the inner hood 28 and the outer hood 16, an upwardly extending tube 112 coupled with the intake spout 110 and extending upwardly along the inner side of the side wall 30 and an inwardly a-nd downwardly directed discharge port 114. As a matter of constructional detail, the nozzle assemblies 108 may be formed either of a bent tube secured to the side wall 30 and extending through or under the latter to present the intake spout 110, as illustrated, or same may be constructed as an integral part of the inner hood assembly 28.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a number of minor modifications and changes may be made from the details of construction of the preferred embodiment disclosed for illustrative purposes without departing from the true spirit and intention of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention should be deemed limited only by the fair scope of the claims that follow.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In hair drying apparatus, a hollow, generally domelike, outer hood having a side wall provided at its normally lower extremity With a head-receiving opening; a generally upright, tubular, inner hood mounted within said outer hood in inwardly spaced relation to the latter presenting a path between said outer and inner hoods for flow of air currents, the lower extremity of the inner hood being open and spaced above said opening of the outer hood; means for recirculating air downwardly along said path between the outer and inner hoods and thence upwardly through said inner 'hood and back into said path; desiccant means supported between said outer and inner hood and extending completely across said path and continuously around said inner hood for drying said air currents as the latter pass along said path; and a number of elongated tubular passage means on said inner hood terminating at the lower extremity thereof below said desiccating means in an upturned intake spout between said outer and inner hoods and at the upper extremity thereof in an inwardly and downwardly directed discharge port within said inner hood.

2. In hair drying apparatus, a hollow, generally domelike, outer hood having a side wall provided at its normally lower extremity with a head-receiving opening; a generally upright, tubular, inner hood mounted within said outer hood in inwardly spaced relation to the latter presenting a path between said outer and inner hoods for flow of air currents, the lower extremity of the inner hood being open and spaced above said opening of the outer hood; means for recirculating air downwardly along said path between the outer and inner hoods and thence upwardly through said inner hood and back into said path; desiccant means supported between said outer and inner hoods and extending completely across said path and continuously around said inner hood for drying said air currents as the latter pass along said path, said desiccant means including upper and lower, annular, foraminous members extending across said path and between said outer and inner hoods, and a quantity of silica gel crystals confined between said members; and electric heating means within said desiccant means adapted when energized for reactivating said desiccant means, there being provided a plurality of notched supporting elements extending between said members :at spaced intervals, electrically nonconductive tube means supportingly received by the notches of the elements and extending between the latter in spaced relation to said members, and electrical resistance heater means extending through said tube means.

3. Apparatus as set torth in claim 2, wherein is provided moisture egress means through said side wall of said outer hood above said desiccant means for the escape of moisture to the atmosphere during reactivation of said desiccant means.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein said egress means comprises a plurality of openings, there being a downwardly and inwardly sloping tab on said side wall partially covering each of said last-mentioned openings respectively to minimize flow of air currents outwardly through said openings to the atmosphere during normal operation of the apparatus.

References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,127,121 Kelley Aug. 16, 1938 2,404,732 Koch July 23, 1946 2,411,039 Heuser Nov. 12, 1946 2,488,553 Orner Nov. 22, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 497,773 Great Britain Dec. 28, 1939 589,473 Great Britain June 20, 1,947 

